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My goal as an artist is to arrest nature’s motion, involving viewers as deeply as I can. As I make my artwork, I leave behind traces of feelings associated with my experience of each scene; sharing my vision of beauty and grace expressed through color and form.

The experiences of life that I find to be of greatest value are those that rest in the basic and seemingly simplistic. Garden fragrances, nature's color and form, all outweigh for me the more contrived and materialistic of our life today.  I paint the landscapes, the feelings and the experiences that they create for me; the perceptions and sensations that collect as a result of a day at the shore, or under the shade of a live oak, or during weeks spent serving a residency at a National Park.  If these sensations communicate with the viewer through my work, their connection and purpose are complete.

 

- Patricia Rottino Cummins

Studio:

240 North Krome Ave.

Studio 7

Homestead, FL 33030


Phone:

305-310-5440

Pat Cummins was born and educated in New York City. At the age of twelve, she created her first pastel and oil paintings, while studying art with Robert Barrell, a contemporary of George Bridgeman and others from The Art Students League of New York City. Continuing her adult studies at The City University of New York, she received a B.A. in Art Education.  In 1976, she relocated to Miami, where she attended Florida International University, receiving a M.S. in Art Education.

For thirty-four years Pat has been a fine arts instructor for Miami-Dade Public Schools. For thirteen of those years, she has been an adjunct professor for Barry University’s Adrian School of Education. She has obtained her specialist status from MDCPS as a result of her continuous postgraduate studies. She is a resident artist, and maintains a studio at ArtSouth, in Homestead, Florida.

Her work has been exhibited locally at The Museum of Contemporary Art, The Lowe Art Museum, Consulado General de Colombia, Coral Gables, F.I.U, Homestead City Hall, Broward College, Miami Dade College, and Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden, as well as in other cities, including the D’Avilia Art Museum, Jacksonville, Backus Museum in Ft. Pierce, The Boca Museum of Art, The von Liebig Art Center of Naples, and Coastal Carolinas Art Center, Hilton Head, S.C. In July 2003 and 2004, her work was displayed at Centre pour l’Art et la Culture, Aix-en-Provence, France. In 2007 her work was included in a a City Hall exhibition in Castel Del Piano, Tuscany.  As an art educator she was awarded a Miami-Dade Public Schools Title V Innovative Teacher Grant, receiving $10,000 in federal grant funds which were infused into the graphic arts at Palmetto Elementary School for the 2003 curriculum. She was also awarded a Learning and Leadership Grant by the National Education Association Foundation to study art and art education in China in 2006.  Two Artist Enhancement Grants were awarded to her by the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs to assist her with her travels and National Park residencies.

Solo exhibitions and acquisitions include prestigious venues such as the Florida State Capitol Gallery, The Florida State Revenue Complex, the Governor's Cabinet Meeting Room, The Coral Gables Museum, Broward College, seven National Parks and locally at  Miami Dade College, Biscayne Nature Center and Fairchild Garden. Her work has been included in many Art in Public Places programs including Hollywood City Hall, Boca Raton City Hall, Homestead City Hall, Marathon Government Center and Key West’s historic Gato Building.  It is also included in many private collections, such as Miami Dade College and Landstar Development Corporation. Two of her paintings are part of the State of Florida Art Collection, and her work has been acqured by Florida's Art in Public Buildings Program. 

During  the summer 2010 was her seventh National Park residency. The Superintendent Invitational AIR happened at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area in northern California.  After this residency she traveled to Cortez, Colorado to study at Crow Canyon Archaeology Center, as a result of  a grant awarded to her from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Summer 2011 Pat was awarded a residency on the west coast of Florida. The Hermitage and the Florida Alliance For Arts Education (FAAE) created (STAR), State Teacher/Artist Residencies for five Florida public school teachers of visual art, creative writing, and music.  Pat spent the summer painting for five weeks at her "beach " cottage during which time she was called by a ranger from Big Cypress National Preserve, informing her she was selected as  Big Cypress National Preserve's  winter 2011 Artist-in-Residence. As a result, her paintings were of a group exhibition of 15 past artists -in-residence at Big Cypress titled "The Preserve".

Summer 2012 was spent painting during a residency  in Ireland at the prestigious Tyrone Guthrie Centre, near Dublin, Ireland. This center established the first artist-in-residence program  in Ireland.  Pat was also invited by our National Park Service to capture the beauty of the landscape and plant collection at Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, late summer 2012 during their Lily Festival. This was Pat's ninth National Park Residency. Her tenth will was to be in Spring 2013 with pastel artist Peal Lau, an old college friend, at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Gateway National Recreation Area, NYC. It has been postponed due to Hurricane Sandy.

Summer of 2013 Pat will serve her tenth residency at Acadia National Park in Maine. She will also paint Great Smoky Mountain National Park.